THE future of the Irish Press company would be decided once the three newspaper titles were sold, its chairman Mr Vincent Jennings said yesterday. He also claimed it would take £16 million to £20 million to reintroduce the three titles.

Mr Jennings said the group was suing the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, for defamation - the Minister criticised the directors for the delay in selling the titles. He said proceedings had been issued against the Minister.

However, Mr Jennings was reluctant to give details of other organisations the directors of Irish Press Publications (IPP) - the company which holds the newspaper titles - were suing or were threatening to sue. These organisations include The Irish Times, The Independent Newspapers, RTE and The Examiner, which all carried the Minister's remarks.

Mr Jennings also said Irish Press would have to get Independent Newspapers' permission if it wished to sell the titles for less than £1 million. Irish Press Publications owes Independent over £1 million, plus interest. However, Mr Jennings stressed that Independent Newspapers "did not have a direct say as to whom the newspaper titles should be sold".

Angry shareholders, who firmly blamed the directors for the demise of the newspapers, refused to sanction the financial report and accounts. The directors declined to give a breakdown of what monies are contained in the group's various subsidiaries.

However, when pressed, Irish Press chief executive Dr Eamon de Valera said the value of investments in one subsidiary, Profinance in Jersey, amounted to £2 million.

In any event, the shareholders were well-outvoted by the shares held by Dr de Valera.

Mr Jennings maintained that the Irish Press directors and various consultants they had employed had devised a good, viable business plan to relaunch the Sunday Press and possibly the Evening Press.

Mr Jennings assured any potential investors that the Irish Press directors, including himself and Dr de Valera, would be available to provide whatever help, advice and experience, they could. Both directors defended themselves against strong criticism from shareholders of their record

The protracted, and mostly acrimonious meeting, was told that the Irish, Press directors had not obstructed the examiners hip process last year. Mr Jennings said the examiner had not shown them any business plan and the directors were not prepared to hand over the titles for this reason.

However, when pressed by shareholders, Mr Jennings admitted that, the directors did not have a plan for Irish Press plc.